Metropolitan Delhi

By Murari Chaturvedi, Editor-in-Chief
In this column we will discuss and give details about the metropolitan cities of the country. First in the series is Delhi, this is the largest city in terms of area in the country. The National Capital Territory of Delhi covers an area of 1,484km. The Delhi metropolitan area lies within the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT) with five local municipal corporations i.e. North Delhi Municipal Corporation, East Delhi Municipal Corporation, NDMC and DCB. According to the 2011 census, MCD is the largest municipal bodies in the world providing civic services to about 11 million people. The seat of Supreme Court of India is in Delhi. The city is administratively divided into eleven police zones which are subdivided into 95 local police stations. The scenario of utility services is not very promising in Delhi. Municipal Water supply is managed by the Delhi Jal Board and it supplies 650 million gallons per day against the consumption requirement is 963 million gallons per day. The shortfall is met by tube walls. Delhi produces 800 solid wastes daily. It consumes around 1,265kwh per capita while the demand is much higher and distributed by Tata Power Distribution and BSES Rajdhani since 2002. In Delhi 43 Fire stations run by Delhi Fire Services that attend about 15000 fire and rescue call per year. Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), Vodafone, Airtel, Idea Cellular, Reliance, Infocom, Aircel and Tata Docomo provide telephone and cell phone service in the city. Indira Gandhi International Airport, situated to the southwest of Delhi is the main gateway for the city’s domestic and international civilian air traffic. The highest road density of 2013 km/100km2 in India is in Delhi. Buses are the most popular means of road transport in Delhi and have the highest number of registered cars in India. The city is connected by road to various parts of the country through several National Highways. Delhi is a major junction in the Indian Railway network and is the headquarters of the Northern Railway. The five main railway stations are in New Delhi, Old Delhi, Nizamuddin Railway station, Anand Vihar Railway Terminal and Sarai Rohilla. Delhi Metro Rail Corporation serves many parts of Delhi and the neighboring cities i.e. Faridabad,Gurgaon, Noida and Ghaziabad. The city also has Delhi Suburban Railway. Delhi has the second largest slum population after Mumbai where many of the slums in Delhi are denied even the basic services. Around 22 per cent of the slum population doesn’t have toilet and are doing open defecation. University of Delhi has been consistently ranked as India’s best university. Delhi NCR a new realty investment destination. Investing in property and real estate has been become the popular feel more secured while investing in the real estate sector in Delhi.